West Bengal Congress spokesperson Kaustav Bagchi was granted bail by a court in Calcutta on Saturday evening, hours after being arrested for his alleged comments against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
A huge team of the Burtolla police station in Calcutta raided Bagchi's residence in Barrackpore in North 24 Parganas district around 3.30 am and arrested him after a few hours.
Bagchi, also a lawyer, was granted bail on a personal bail bond of Rs 1,000 by the additional chief metropolitan magistrate at Bankshall court.
The court directed him to meet the investigating officer once a week.
The prosecution prayed for Bagchi's police custody till March 10 for questioning him, alleging he was involved in a conspiracy.
Praying for bail, Bagchi's lawyers questioned why a lawyer was arrested by the police early in the morning from his residence, instead of serving him a notice.
The arrest was not necessary since the charges against him in the FIR do not entail a sentence of over seven years, his lawyers told the court.
Bagchi was arrested on the basis of a complaint filed at the Burtolla police station on Friday night by one Sumit Singh, who claimed to be a TMC supporter, for his alleged comments against the chief minister.
Bagchi allegedly criticised Banerjee for making "personal attacks" on state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury after the party snatched the Sagardighi seat in Murshidabad district from the TMC in a bypoll.
He was booked under several sections of the IPC, including 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
The Congress workers protested against the arrest at various places across the state, including Baharampur and Kolkata.
The BJP's legal department at the Calcutta High Court also condemned the arrest.
"The BJP Legal Department strongly condemns the colourable exercise of power and police excesses by the state machinery," it said in a statement.
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